Developing into the leader you were meant to be
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#Leadership; #Technical; #Agile; #Development; #Communication; #Blog
Corporate Leadership Training is a multi-billion dollar industry, with even small businesses spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on training. But is it really worth it? Dr. Robert Brinkerhoff’s book (“Telling Training’s Story”) explains why just 15 percent of leaders who get training are actually able to establish permanent change after traditional learning experiences. Whilst the numbers may be irrefutable, sometimes the problem lies with the people themselves and not with the program.
There’s no general formula to teach leaders how to run their teams. Finding a training program that fits specifically to your organisation and its’ goals is key when developing leaders. More importantly, finding the right people to develop is more crucial. Often times, companies invest their resources on the wrong people which results in failed leadership development.
“Puzzle” Photo by Ryoji Iwata on Unsplash
One of the largest problems in Leadership Development is knowing where to even get started. If you want lessons to stick and long-term impact to occur, you need a system that continues to develop you and your team. But finding the right system may prove difficult because there are lots of programs out there, and a lot of variations to each one. What worked for others may not necessarily work for you. You need to find the perfect fit just like fitting a piece in a jigsaw puzzle.
As stated by Mei Ling Chin of “Selling Your Why”, there are 5 contributing factors as to why leadership training programs could be a waste of time, and thus need to be addressed beforehand:
1. Company culture – The company needs to be willing to evolve and adapt changes. If the company will not allow the participants to apply what they have learned in the programs, they will just revert back to their old selves.
2. Employee behaviour – Your candidates for leadership development have to want to develop. To change a behaviour requires a person to act differently which directly means opening oneself to the risk of criticism, judgement, and uncertainty.
3. Employee expectation – Before each training session, their superior should set learning expectations and specific objectives and link it to their personal development plan.
4. Changing environment – There should be on-boarding programs that incorporate leadership training programs designed for potential leaders who are transitioning, where learning expectations and specific objectives are linked to personal development
5. Training Program - study shows that most leadership training programs are lacking this individuality aspect that target on building up the potential leader’s strength and develop the skill to delegate tasks that they are not good at to people who are better suited to the task.
Leadership Development fails because people are unprepared to step up. A study by Forbes on “Why Leadership Development Often Fails” show that only 7% of CEOs believe their companies are creating effective global leaders. Only 25% of organisations are ready to replace only 10% of heir critical positions, and 97.5% of critical leadership positions are unprepared to be filled by anyone. But even if an organisation does have people lined up for leadership roles, it has a high probability of failure if the potential leaders don’t have the right attitude.
Attitude is everything in Leadership Development. The cognitive processing that must occur in order to master complex behavioural skills requires you first reflect on your judgments, values, and perspective. According to Marcia Reynolds of CoVisioning, to have effective leadership requires you to reflect on your values regularly and ask yourself if you truly:
Like people. Too many people are promoted to leadership positions who only like some people. This is not a good place to start.
Want other people to be more successful than you. Too many high achievers are promoted to leadership positions but they like being the superstar. They have trouble letting other people shine
Embrace ambiguity. Too many leaders think they have to be the one who knows what to do and have all the answers no matter what. These leaders become the roadblocks to creativity, productivity, and growth.
Know how to let go. You may find that if you put your faith in your people to flourish, they will be determined to come through for you. You cannot and should not try to control everything.
According to the book,“The Leadership Pipeline” (Ram Charan, Stephen Drotter, and James Noel), there are other shifts in thinking and values you will need to make as you climb up the leadership ladder. The higher you go, the more you will need to value how work gets done by groups of people.
We need continual development programs that expand as individuals grow. But more than that, we need to apply what we’ve learned and see what works through feedback. Founder of development firms “Novations” and “Zenger Folkman” Joseph Folkman conducted a study on “Leadership follow-through from solicited feedback”, and he had this to show:
Leaders who were older but still asked for, and acted on, feedback were significantly more effective leaders. With 360-degree feedback data, we have the capability to precisely identify actions that will improve the effectiveness of each leader and the effectiveness of a senior leadership team. However, being too accommodating to feedback is not a good thing. Trying to learn new skills without changing the way you think about the situation where you will use the skills can be frustrating if not disastrous.
“Gold” Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash
Time is money, and Leadership Development takes heaps of both. you have to value what a skill will give you before you will set aside the time it takes to be good at it.
But the investment of time never stops and learning doesn’t end with a training course, workshop, or a program. Leaders need to constantly learn, and consistently apply this to really be considered an asset to their organisation. The thirst for knowledge and improvement is something that must never be quenched.
“Coach” Photo by Wade Austin Ellis on Unsplash
Coaching before, during and after training can help you make the shift. With the right values in place, your attendance at a leadership skills class could give you a great return on your investment. It is only with a positive attitude and receptiveness to feedback that would determine whether or not you develop into the leader you were meant to be.
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Work with me – Get in touch here, call 1300 684 669 or email davidw@davidwayne.com.au to discuss options for coaching, workshops or training programs or
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